hooglebug

this is what i was thinking for the layout of the controls. control layout 1= pu selector 2= neck pu volume 3= master tone 4= motherbucker tap 1 5= motherbucker volume + tap 2 6= ff comp, stab and on/off 7= 3 remaining ff controls. any thoughts or new layout ideas welcome

i did the template for the neck yesterday but as my jigsaw is crap its nowhere near straight so i'll just end up drawing it out on the neck wood from measurements. neck template some time this week im going to see if i can bend the mirror plastic so it will go on the headstock. if so, yay! if not, o well. anymore opinions about the logo keep them coming.

phaser, fuzz probe, whammy controller, kaoss pad.... maybe next time You can see them all here here's a couple of shots of the sapele. you can't really see the grain too well as its still rough sawn, and it isn't as red as it looks in the pics either. the reason it looks so wet is because it had a slight curve in it and if i were to plane it flat it would be too thin, so i've soaked it and its now under a few concrete flags. if that doesn't work then i'm just going to plane the front and carve the back into a kind of psuedo archback. anyway, here are the pics. sapele another shot i've been playing about with logos today and have it narrowed down to two. i used the manson logo as a starting point and used my initials and either 'uno' or 'starlight' as the name. have a look and let me know which you prefer. bear in mind the background will be dark so the 'starlight' will show up properly. uno starlight (for those who don't know, 'uno' and 'starlight' are muse songs and this guitar is a copy of the guitarist from muse's guitars. just so you know)

that's a pretty nice looker so far! i wouldn't be too bothered about getting a nice shiney smooth finish till you've routed out for the pickups though. the top will probably get a few little scratches on it.

I've been itching to build another guitar since i finished the last one a few years ago. And now i've decided to do it. I really like the Manson guitars built for Matt Bellamy so i thought why not. I can hear the negative comments about that already - copying someone elses original design etc. But how many strat, tele, les paul, sg, prs, flying v, jem etc etc etc copies do we see on here? They're all original designs too, just produced on a huge scale. And i'm not going to be selling it, nor would i make one for someone else, so i'm not profiting from someone elses design in anyway. Now, rant over... I bought two 500 x 380 x 45mm blocks of sapele, both from the same slab for £10 each. (no pics of that yet but there'll be some later) i dont know if anyones seen or made an electric from sapele before, but i havent. i guess i'll see what its like either way. its used on acoustics though so it cant be so bad. I'm thinking it's going to be pretty heavy though so i'll probably put some tone chambers in it. The guitar's going to have a purple mirror top, with curly maple edge binding to match the flame maple neck, which will have an ebony fingerboard (neither of which i have yet). It's going to have a neck p90 and a ka motherbucker in bridge, with a built in fuzz factory. Gotoh 510 tuners (just because they're sexy) and a trem bridge of some description. All i've done so far is cut out the template for the body. theres just the shape of it, not holes for anything yet (its just so hot i couldnt be bothered with anything!) template As things get done i'll post it. And pics of the wood will be up in the next day or two

when you say three way selector switch do you mean the strat type or a les paul type? thats the only thing i can think of.

hmm... you say the paint has come off in some places. if its flaking off you could maybe see if you can encourage it to do that. if its not flaking and has just rubbed then try cracking it in the heel area and flake it off that way. sanding is i guess too risky if you want to keep the original finish.

i have no idea if they do or not, i don't really play it too much. i just wanted to try it on a maple fretboard - i always thought it looked pretty cool. and ben - i was fully expecting that result so it wouldnt really have mattered. in fact, i should have put some money on it. i predicted rooney would get frustrated and get sent off, and also it would go to penalties and we'd lose. all well before the game started. damn. why didnt i put money on it.

i just used sandpaper for everything. i dulled the finish first, then sanded the wear spots - contours etc. then i did the neck, again with sandpaper, then gave it a few whacks with a screwdriver and a big heavy file. i tried cracking the finish with the compressed air again, and again nothing. o well. and thats about it i think. though considering it was 90 degrees in the garage while i was doing it and sweat was dripping off me just standing there, it was a herculean effort! hehe i think this one has come out better than the strat mainly because of all the paint layers that were on that one. if there was just one layer of paint on the strat it would have been much better. one day i might decide to do some work on the hardware on the bass, its all a bit too shiney for a relic, but not for now.

Today whilst waiting for the england game to start i decided i'd relic my hohner jazz bass, because, well, why not. i liked the way my jimi strat looked and felt after i did that so i thought id see if i could do it any better. so before and after the match (i should have done it during too!) i reliced my jazz bass. the wear on the fretboard could do to be a bit darker but im pretty happy with my few hours work. front body front fingerboard (hard to see) body again and again fretboard again back neck body back and again

is this on pickups? if so the 'cage' is the earth wire

well its been a few days now. its seems to sound a lot better. i know it doesnt but you know what i mean. it feels really good. i've never been too fond of matt finishes but it just feels so good, and looks good too. i finally got the headstock to crack and stay cracked! yay! headstock checking i dont think the body is ever going to do that, unless i put more clear coats and let it cure for weeks and weeks to be sure. maybe when my flying v's finally finished (i've been waiting over 10 weeks for a circuit board t get back from a repairer!?!) i'll do it, but for now im just gonna enjoy it

it depends how the extra frets are put on. if theres an overhang of the fretboard (like strats have) then you can just replace them but if not then you'd be changing the scale length and the frets wouldnt be in the right place

well who knows maybe in the future i'll decide to give it a go with some nitro and try to make it look a bit better. for now i'll think i'll just play it for a bit - until i get my flying v back in action. maybe a few more dings here and there as time goes by, who knows. custom 22 - i've had it like it was for a few years and i just got a bit bored with it. i still wanted to keep it so i thought i'd give relicing a go. this guitar has had a few different paint jobs in its time, but i think it'll stay as it is now. and ben, im from wakefield

i dont think i have the patience to wait for nitro! thanks for the nice words. us west yorkshire guys have to stick together!

well it's finished (or i might put a few more dings in it). the headstock cracked a little but its hard to see. the body didn't crack at all, neither did it yellow in the sun, though to be fair there hasn't been too much of it. if we have a few really sunny days i'll stick it outside and see what happens. apart from that i'm pretty happy with it. it would have been a lot easier with a stock strat, but never mind. anyway, have a look and let me know what you think. if you think there should be more dings and scrapes, where should they go? full length front headstock cutaway forearm contour pointless arty dark shot full length back back neckplate neck view

i've made a whole guitar (minus the fingerboard) out of bubinga, and another with a bubinga neck. it's easy to work with and it smells GORGEOUS! the guitar made entirely from it is pretty heavy but its not too bad

it was definately the finish. but it did disappear when i rubbed it. strange. i tried it on the back of the headstock and nothing happened. i'll try again tomorrow and see what happens

i tried the compressed air on the headstock face. it seemed to work beautifully, but when i wiped the moisture off the checking disappeared. so i tried it again and left it for half an hour, but the same thing happened. any ideas whats going on there? as for the scratchplate, its got a coat of acrylic on it to protect the design, but im leaving it on when i put the guitar in the sun (if we ever get any more) so hopefully it will yellow a little

i'm just keeping the electrics as they were as they sound pretty good to me. and it's a second guitar, my homemade flying v (which is getting a facelift) is my main instrument. a few years ago i did a little mod to turn the second tone pot into something that makes a few of the settings sound like humbuckers (ish) as for preperation, i just sanded down to the paint layer, keyed it up a bit and sprayed over it. if i was doing it again i would go right down to the primer to make the finish thinner though. here's a little pick of the scratchplate with the stained knobs and pu covers. today i filed down the edges of the neck and middle covers to simulate wear. as you can all see i've from aiming for mild wear to some quite drastic wear in places. o well. i also got a can of compressed air to (hopefully) check the finish. i know it works on nitro, not sure about anything else. i guess i'll see

some light paint stripper of some kind is all i can think of but i dont know that id advise anything but careful sanding with a hollow guitar. theres nothing wrong with taking your time and doing a great job rather than taking the fastest option and risk messing something up. the white stuff may be something to do with the finish and may well come out with finer sanding. it might also be filler of some kind. can you tell whether its on the wood or the finish? if it is on the wood and you cant get rid of it, maybe go for a sunburst

couldnt really do anything as the bloody suns gone in so i cant age the clear coat. i may put a coat or two on tomorrow so theres less chance of me rubbing through it again when i dull it. i'll just see what the weather decides to do. i put the plastic bits on the fingerboard for the first time since i stained them to see what they look like - looks pretty good. no pics of that but i might do one later

its just the same as painting a guitar anywhere else. they just put a clear coat over the top, no different from maple fingerboard fenders. over time of coarse it will wear down but its no different from anywhere else on the instrument

it looks great. love the finish. the only thing i dont like is the 12th fret inlay, but as its your guitar and not mine it doesnt really matter does it. great job

acrylic can go over poly, poly can NOT go over acrylic EDIT: i put the wrong words in there! acrylic can go over poly and visa versa, but poly and cellulose do not get on